UN Official: Gaza Crisis Reflects Global Humanitarian System's Failure

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Interview by Iman Kheriji
GENEVA, July 2 (KUNA) -- United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese, said on Wednesday that the affairs in the Gaza Strip reflect "a failure of the global humanitarian system to protect populations from war crimes and acts of genocide."
Speaking to KUNA, Albanese said, "What is happening in Gaza is a call to us as a multilateral system to safeguard what remains of humanitarian norms by reactivating the role of the United Nations."
She criticized the continued control of aid distribution in Gaza by the Israeli forces, who are accused of war crimes and genocide under the so-called "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," calling it "a death trap" and a "hunger game" rather than a humanitarian operation.
Albanese affirmed that the work of this foundation amounts to "complicity in genocide" including the deliberate creation of inhumane living conditions leading to mass extermination, describing the process as "a criminal operation."
She stressed the urgent need to shut down this foundation and forcibly lift the blockade asserting, "genocide will not stop on its own "it must be stopped by force."
Her remarks come one day ahead of her presentation to the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva under the title "From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide."
Albanese expressed deep concern over the involvement of arms industry corporations in the so-called "economy of war" tied to the destruction of Gaza, which she said poses a direct threat to human rights moral values and global security.
She condemned companies profiting from a system built on oppression, occupation, and genocide, noting a significant surge in weapons sales and surveillance services.
She called for increased pressure on these companies to end their complicity with the Israeli occupation and to protect Palestinians from the ongoing genocidal war.
Albanese also called for concrete steps beyond boycott campaigns, urging official government action, including the dispatch of aid ships and medical missions to Gaza such as a renewed Freedom Flotilla or the North African aid convoy.
Regarding the West Bank and settlement expansion, Albanese clarified that settlement construction is not a new policy but dates back to 1967.
"Since the Oslo Accords the number of settlements and settlers has multiplied significantly," she explained.
Albanese emphasized that this trajectory has now become an "explicit policy under the current Israeli government," citing "the danger of the February 2023 coalition agreement that grants Israeli authorities control over most of the West Bank."
She warned that the occupation seeks implicit recognition of its annexation of the West Bank, making it an element of the crime of aggression, particularly in light of the International Court of Justice's designation of the occupation as illegal.
Albanese also warned "Remaining silent about these practices contributes to the erosion of the entire international system and undermines the principles of justice and human dignity that the United Nations was established to protect."
The Special Rapporteur's report provides detailed documentation of the involvement of various companies in severe structural violations, including weapons and tech manufacturers, service industries, banks, and insurance companies. These violations span occupation, annexation, apartheid, starvation, and extrajudicial killings.
The report calls for concrete actions, including a comprehensive arms embargo on the Israeli occupation, suspension of trade agreements, expansion of the OHCHR database of companies operating in settlements to include all entities complicit in supporting the occupation's war crimes, holding corporate executives accountable, and activating sanctions mechanisms and asset freezes. (end)
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